Art Unites Us is Arts United’s new multi-media interview series that focuses on how we find common ground through art.
Building on the idea that Northeast Indiana’s arts and culture is one of our strongest features, these informal, five minute conversations are meant to highlight the area’s vibrant quality of life as experienced by people behind-the-scenes as well as out in the limelight, according to Rachelle Reinking, the organization’s Director of Communications.
For a look at just how things are taking shape and the community support already being garnered, WBOI’s Julia Meek speaks with Reinking about the project’s scope as it impacts the people who live, learn, work, and play here.
Find more information and a listing of interviews on the Art Unites Us series on YouTube and the Arts United website.
Julia Meek: Rachelle Reinking, welcome.
Rachelle Reinking: Thanks for having me, Julia.
Julia Meek: Now your new video project surely lives up to its name, Art Unites Us. So how did this brainchild of yours come to be?
Rachelle Reinking: Well basically, we were exploring within our community development team ways that we could continue to share different stories of artists in northeast Indiana and kind of expound on this theme of art unites us that we started to develop as Arts United. As we thought more and more about it, I thought about how telling the stories by hearing them directly from those people was easily the best and most authentic way to get the true stories across. And it was kind of born from there.
Julia Meek: Good thinking. And you focus on individuals behind the scenes as well as out in front and how we find common ground in art. And that's a great premise, really quite a set of players there that you set up on your field. So how did you dive into it? Your first sort, your first steps?
Rachelle Reinking: We all kind of brainstormed as a team, you know, who would be great to hear their story. And of course, one of those people being Julia meek, naturally (chuckles), and really wanted to look through all aspects of how our unites us, you know, it's more than just individual artists. There's this common ground that we can find through other careers through other avenues of looking at art through a different lens, and being able to say, how can we look at art through an economic development lens? How can we tell the individual stories of people of diverse backgrounds, really nailing down who has already great stories that we've heard and allowing them to share that themselves. So that's really how we started digging in and making a list of people because thankfully, northeast Indiana just has a boatload of stories to tell.
Julia Meek: And it is a multi media affair that you've put forth videos as well as podcasts are audio only. And they're produced in house by you as a matter of fact. So how does that work?
Rachelle Reinking: So I am operating a bit of a one woman show with an accompaniment of my gracious coworkers, who thankfully are kind enough to also stand in as interviewers for guests part of that being that we want to continue to share different voices. What I've done is gone ahead and rounded up as much equipment as I can is what it feels like, but continued to have a setup in house, we've kind of created my own little makeshift studio in one of our conference rooms, and try to make it feel as homey as you would any talk show. We pretend the cameras aren't there. If you're in front of it. I'm silently watching and lurking I suppose behind. But I'm really there just to make sure that we're capturing everything between the audio and the video, making sure that we're really profiling people in a way that feels like it could just be happening in your living room with you too.
Julia Meek: I can vouch for that feeling. That's a warm and wonderful feeling. Indeed, anytime ones being interviewed or interviewing, and okay, your interviewees really are intentionally diverse. And as you describe very many perspectives and art forms and good news stories, which is fantastic. It was an honor to kickstart the whole series, what can we expect going forward?
Rachelle Reinking: So we really want to continue this as an evergreen piece of content and continue the series as a permanent installment of being able to share stories within northeast Indiana, we've already got a couple more interviews under the belt that are pre-publishing, people like Lindy Bazile that I recently interviewed, who is a local artist and Kristin Guthrie of visit for Wayne, kind of taking a look at different avenues of arts and culture, you know, from the individual artists perspective and the work that Lindy is doing for people of color and diverse representation in visual art and looking at things... you know, how is arts and culture impacting how visitors see Fort Wayne, and we'll continue this list that we have that seems like it's endless. But what a great resource that we have between all of these folks that are, you know, artistic directors, individual artists, people who look at arts and culture through the economic development standpoint, and other arts advocates.
Julia Meek: And it's fantastic that you are covering all of this in just this way. Now, speaking of direction and directors. This seems a natural outgrowth of your position as director of communications for arts united, Rachelle. I am kind of curious, what's your favorite part of that job?
Rachelle Reinking: There's so many different things that I get to do as part of my job. I really do love being able to hear the different stories and different projects that people are working on within our community within Greater northeast Indiana. It's just fascinating. I'm a Fort Wayne native, and as much as I'm always in the know as much as I can be. There's still so much happening that I'm so excited to learn about That continues to grow and flourish through our region.
Julia Meek: It's very wonderful to hear you say that. And now the power of social media, it drives the artcentricity that drives it, we might say, so how does it directly factor into...well, our basic community art movement?
Rachelle Reinking: You know, social media, being a contention or connector point sometimes. For us, it's really this avenue that perhaps people will have this connection with folks that they haven't met before, stories they haven't heard, but maybe relate to in some way. That is a really important thing. You know, when we talk about art uniting us, it goes beyond just, "Well, I love the art of dance." It's going to a much more personal place, and this sense of community and belonging that we all long for,
Julia Meek: And you mentioned storytelling, certainly still gaining momentum, and honestly, we hope it always will. What does it feel like to be the facilitator to help somebody tell their story, to share those stories?
Rachelle Reinking: I think in a lot of ways, being able to be in the position that I'm in, there's an opportunity to really bridge this humanistic feel to arts and culture. And I know for those who may not participate as frequently, it almost feels like an us and them scenario. And it's a community that they can't connect to. My goal always is to continue building that human relationship, that connection, and feeling that authenticity behind all of these stories that are coming together, whether it's an individual who's sharing a personal story of how they became inspired to create art, or if it's someone who's representing an arts and culture organization, it's one of those things where yes, there is the opportunity to look at this as a, you know, institutional thing. And some folks might believe that art should not be institutional, I think of it a bit more of a yes. And because there's people behind these institutions as well. So working through this, the most important part to me as I'm bringing stories to light is sharing that common humanity.
Julia Meek: Great point. And we are very glad that you do that, Rachelle. So how and where can you use all of this, those platforms and your content to your best advantage so that you can share the art as well as the good word for it?
Rachelle Reinking: So we always are posting these stories, or will be continuing to via social media, primarily the Facebook page, the Instagram page, and the LinkedIn page for arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, we also have a build on to one of our web pages on the arts United website, artsunited.org. If you follow us on YouTube, you can always find the playlist that's Art Unites Us. And we are presently getting our way onto some of your favorite podcast platforms.
Julia Meek: So you're getting all your bases covered very nicely, it sounds like Rachelle, and what has the response been so far?
Rachelle Reinking: So far, and even having the one video which is a fantastic interview, I may say, we've just had s uch a positive response to the announcement, not only of the series, but the way that we're treating it. Folks have already said to me, I'm so excited for this, I'm going to tune in every single time you drop one of these episodes. And I think that the accessibility to it is one of my priorities too, and trying to keep them on the shorter end so that we can have a manageable listening experience, but also still share the major points of what folks have to say.
Julia Meek: It's a fun concept. It's a fun execution of it, and really great success at this early stage. Now, as northeast Indiana's arts umbrella organization, collectively speaking, you have really championed all causes and sectors of the arts community during the pandemic, and you still are. What part would you say that situation, the pandemic and your creative solutions to the challenges had in forming this actual project?
Rachelle Reinking: We've learned so much as our organization has been more collaborative with other organizations to find solutions: how can we all work together? And I think that really ties into the whole concept of art uniting us. And you know, we still connected and continued and forged ahead through the hardest parts of the pandemic and able to not only support our partners, but also take a look at what else we're doing so that we can continue to better serve others in our community.
Julia Meek: That's just wonderful. Did you have any inkling as you were going through all of that, of course, at a fast crazy pace with a laser focus on what you had to do that something like this could come out?
Rachelle Reinking: You know, this might be an artist cliche, but a lot, a lot of good art comes out of pain, right? And so I think that this kind of just started as a birth of manifestation of really wanting to hear from others and and being able to share their story and not have necessarily my voice telling someone else's story, being able to have that wider platform and showcase different people, different perspectives.
Julia Meek: And it obviously speaks to Arts United's whole inclusive mission. What else does it say?
Rachelle Reinking: I think with this, beyond our uniting us, finding that common ground between community and conversation, this really speaks to a sense of belonging, but also a sense of amiability, and being able to work together and co-collaborate and co-create, as we continue down the road beyond where we're at even today, where we've been the last couple of years, and really forge ahead, continue to ever evolve, keep serving northeast Indiana through arts and culture and supporting others who also do.
Julia Meek: What an honor as well as a responsibility to be tasked with that challenge. And now that we are on the other side of the isolation and vacuum, maybe, caused by the last couple of COVID dominated years. Where are you headed, Rachelle? Collectively speaking, what's next?
Rachelle Reinking: We're continuing to co-collaborate with our partner organizations to continue serving them the best way that we can and having those discussions with them so that they also have some agency and autonomy when it comes to what the services are that we can be providing, continuing to expand the opportunities we have, whether that's monetarily or other Member Services programs. And really just forward focusing as we continue to bring this idea that art unites us and move toward the idea of arts campus, Fort Wayne being one of those anchors, where art can unite us.
Julia Meek: Also speaking of COVID, and everything else, and going forward, and all of the changing directions and the innovation everybody has had to do including Art United, how's it looking down there on the campus and looking out from the campus?
Rachelle Reinking: We are continuing to see more and more activity come back to campus and re-enlivening, which is just so great to see after you know, dark theaters for the better part of a year and continuing to see more and more performances, more and more opportunities for individual artists coming up and coming back, being able to see the return of things like Taste of the Arts and Chalk Walk--all of these major community events. It's looking really great and continuing to look ahead to the future, we've got a lot on our plate, but in such a fantastic way that we've kind of come out of this fog of "what do we do now" that all organizations were really in during the height of the pandemic. We've kind of got this clarity now moving forward, and the energizing feeling so that we can continue to forge ahead and take action.
Julia Meek: That's just great. So purely from the dollars and cents of it, why is public art including projects just like this vital to our economy?
Rachelle Reinking: I think one of the biggest things when it comes to public art and accessible content like this is that it really is the creativity for everyone. And that has been our new adaptive mission as Arts United. B eing able to have creativity, arts and culture available for everyone everywhere and every day. And those are two of the key things that can help create that kind of access between that and continuing to have grant programs come up and reset their parameters so that more individuals and nonprofits can move forward to keep creating in our own communities. It gives our community a sense of ownership of the place they live continues this idea of a sense of belonging. It drives people to want to live here who may not have or to want to stay here. And I'll say for myself, I was one of those kids who graduated high school and said I am getting out of here, I'll fully admit that you can put it on record. So much has changed over the course of the years that I'm really glad I stayed and I want to be part of the group of people that is continuing to make and create things that make Fort Wayne cool.
Julia Meek: We are glad that you have and we certainly look forward to seeing what's next through your own power and all of the power of Arts United. And last question Rachelle: As we celebrate the many ways art unites us, can you share one simple suggestion with us on how we can totally amplify that experience?
Rachelle Reinking: Whenever you hear someone's story whether it is a story that I'm facilitating through our avenue or anyone else's really in this community. Take the time to really sit down, listen, be open mind and absorb it. You don't have to analyze it just sit with it, ruminate. It's one of my favorite things to do. Really just allow this idea to flow into your head. Allow yourself to explore new ideas that maybe you hadn't thought of before...experiences you've never had. And that is really what continues that human connection that is really my goal with the Art Unites Us series.
Julia Meek: Rachelle Reinking is Director of Communication and Project Coordinator of Arts United's Art Unites Us project. Rachelle, your spirit and this project are fantastic. Do carry the gift.
Rachelle Reinking: Thanks, Julia.
